It’s not easy to live in Singapore sometimes. The small city size means we are generally familiar with almost the entire island. Well, actually I’m talking about Gen X and Y in general. We grew up without iPhones and the constant notifications of our online lives. Because of that, we mingled with people as we got along, took buses or MRT everywhere, and traveled all over the island just to meet up and chill out.
Yet despite knowing the map so well, we are still divided by our areas of domestication. Actually you can almost break Singapore down like an onion:
The Borderlands vs. The City
At the outer ring, you have Woodlands—the “actual borderlands”. If you grew up in Woodlands or Yishun in the 80s or 90s, the common thought was almost always: move away to somewhere closer to town. The North felt isolated, boxed in by camps, open land, and that massive bottleneck to Johor.
Then you have the core central—what everyone calls “the city”, where everyone wanted to hang out in. That is, until the suburb shopping malls came in and the city became something that we just go occasionally. And Bukit Timah, who can forget the rich man area, where the millionaires live and stay away from all of us commoners.
Easterners vs. Westerners
On the other hand, we can cut the onion in half, and find the classic tribal line: The East versus West.
Easterners are notoriously rooted. If you live in Bedok, Marine Parade, or Pasir Ris, you basically feel life ends west of Marina Bay. You have the food, the coast, and the airport—why bother crossing? There is also the thought that it’s 1 or 2 degree cooler in the east compared to the west! So much more trees! The best beach is here, the airport!
Westerners, on the other hand, built up their own stubborn pride. Having lived with the “ulu industrial” tag in Jurong for decades, they realized they have everything they need right at their doorstep. They rarely needed to go to town nowadays, let alone the East. The universities are here, so is the zoo, the highest hill in Singapore, best nature walks!
The Estate Shift
Over the years, something shifted. The people who stayed in Woodlands or Yishun stopped looking to escape. They realized the borderlands have breathing room, cheaper daily amenities, and a rhythm of life that folks down south don’t really understand. We complain about Singapore being a tiny, crowded dot, but the truth is we still draw our own invisible borders. We know the whole island inside out, but when it comes down to daily life, our loyalties stay firmly planted in our own corner.